We’d heard that credit card information can fetch as little as $1.50 on the open market, but we never really thought about what the experience of actually purchasing the info was like. Well, it turns out that buying a stolen credit card is a process riddled with fees. Who knew?

Brian Krebs started out by opening an account on a site that sells card numbers stolen from computers infected with trojans. He soon found out that being a scammer doesn’t mean you won’t be nickel and dimed.

The trouble is, the minute you seek to narrow your search using the built-in tools, the site starts adding all these extra convenience fees (sound familiar?). For example, if I wanted to buy a card stolen from anyone around the Washington, D.C. area, it would probably be from a resident of McLean, Va., which is more or less a tony place where there are plenty of well-to-do folk. Anyway, the site found me a card (a MasterCard) belonging to a McLean resident alright, but then the service wanted to tack on an extra $.60 just because I isolated my search by city and state — raising the cost in my shopping cart to $2.10! No way, Jose. Not this bargain shopper!

Oh, and as the commenters on BoingBoing pointed out — No, the site doesn’t accept credit card payments for stolen credit card numbers.

I’ll Take 2 MasterCards and a Visa, Please [Krebs On Security via BoingBoing]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.